Guys, step away from the selfie stick. New research suggests that men who take a bajillion photos of themselves score highly in the psychopath department.
The research, conducted by Ohio State University, also found that selfie-lovers are more likely to show signs of being narcissistic, impulsive and display other anti-social characteristics such as a lack of empathy.
The study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, involved asking 800 men aged between 18 to 40 about their photo posting behaviour on social media, as well as enquiring as to whether they edit their photographs before posting.
The participants also completed standard questionnaires for anti-social behaviours and for self-objectification.
Researchers found that posting more photographs was linked to being narcissistic and psychopathic.
Jesse Fox, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State, said: “It’s not surprising that men who post a lot of selfies and spend more time editing them are more narcissistic, but this is the first time it has actually been confirmed in a study.”
“The more interesting finding is that they also score higher on this other anti-social personality trait, psychopathy, and are more prone to self-objectification.”
Another key finding was that men showing signs of psychopathic behaviour did not take time to carefully edit their photos before posting them.
"Psychopathy is characterised by impulsivity," said Fox. "They are going to snap the photos and put them online right away. They want to see themselves. They don't want to spend time editing."
So what does this mean for men with a passion for, well, themselves?
Self-objectification is the main issue, and it involves valuing a person (or yourself) by appearance, rather than for positive traits. In this case, editing photographs was related to higher levels of self-objectification.
Fox added: “We know that self-objectification leads to a lot of terrible things, like depression and eating disorders in women.”
“With the growing use of social networks, everyone is more concerned with their appearance. That means self-objectification may become a bigger problem for men, as well as for women.”
Fox added that she is now studying women to see if taking frequent selfies also show signs of narcissism and psychopathy.
Looks like somebody needs to break it to these guys...
